Yeah, this thing is sick. I can't wait to start working on it. I need to try to find a CB450 parts bike or at least a good engine. That's what the frame was built to use and I'd like to get this thing together as quickly and easily as possible so I can ride it.

loxxrider wrote:That new turbine housing looks super nice. Glad it worked out to both of our benefits!

Me too! Having it sit there and look so nice makes it so tempting to start getting ahead of myself and spending money I can't spend on engine parts because I'm in the midst of buying my first house, which will provide me more space with a bigger garage to finish it lol

chaloux wrote:This thread is awesome. This project is awesome. That ground control kit is a hilarious mix, nice job.

Thanks man! And the Ground Control kit is very funny. I had to explain to them 3 times what I needed before they told me I needed to take dimensions of everything in the rear to prove that I was dead serious about needing those exact parts!

Also update from the weekend. I turned my garage into a makeshift spray booth and had my buddy Corey come over to spray all the door jambs, the hatch jambs, the underside of the hood, sunroof and gas cap and edge the fenders. Now I can put everything back together and get it on a trailer this Friday or Saturday morning to bring it up to the booth he uses where we will spray the entire exterior of the car! I'll post some pictures up later today. It was basically dark out by the time we finished.

Pictures from this weekend! It's all I've taken so far, but I'll take more once it's all done. The color is really nice and the pictures are kinda crappy because I was being lazy and had it on point and shoot mode.

loxxrider wrote:Here's the experimental mock up part we've been discussing

It needs some clean up, but overall it came out well.

Mmmmmmm that is purdy I'm stoked on it to all come together!

Anyways a little update for today. I spent the weekend installing glass. I got the rear hatch, the rear quarter glass and all four doors including these super uncommon, south America only option, wing windows for the front doors with NEW seals. It took me 8 hours just to get those two pieces in. Totally worth it. IMG_8555 by dougkehl1, on FlickrIMG_8556 by dougkehl1, on FlickrIMG_8558 by dougkehl1, on Flickr

Also got the sunroof installed and that was a pain, but only because it's been probably 6+ months since I removed it.IMG_8549 by dougkehl1, on Flickr

WOAH, vent windows. Something I had all but forgotten, and now I can't stop thinking about them! I love those things. I can almost hear the snap of the little latch mechanism as you twist the cam to latch.

Yeah, I love vent windows. It's one of my favorite things about my Mk1 and I always wished this car had them. It makes all the difference when you don't have A/C because it really funnels the air into the car. But I found them on German Ebay Classifieds.. Some dude went to Brazil earlier in the year and bought like 6 sets with new seals and brought them all back to Germany and then I bought a set the second I saw them because I had no idea they even existed for this car.

Well the weekend started like crap. Came to find that the basically new 205/55r16 tires were just a hair too big for the front wheel arches and rubbed the lower, inner section of the fender.. So I had my friend a the local tire shop I use get me one 205/50r16 tire in hopes it would be just small enough.

While I waited for that, I tried installing the windshield again.. This time after about 25 or so attempts over the course of like 6 days my friend who was helping me put just a hair too much pressure on it and that was the end of that windshield.. Luckily the guy I got it from thinks he has another brand new one.. If he doesn't at least I have the stock one, even though it's badly pitted, no cracks though.IMG_8561 by dougkehl1, on Flickr

The new tire showed up.I mounted it and it turned out great, it clears with tons of room.. But then I realized when I get the coilovers in the wheel will sit a little differently in the wheel well. I figured this was a good time to assemble the coilovers and see how everything fit.IMG_8564 by dougkehl1, on Flickr

And the fitment was exactly what I wanted! And the tire clears lock to lock on the lower, inner fender. So with that information I ordered 3 more tires this afternoon. IMG_8565 by dougkehl1, on Flickr

I finally got the windshield in after breaking two lol I got all the doors together and the dash back in, but the part I really cared about was the old headliner.. The fabric originally on it was pretty dirty and the sunroof was missing any upholstery since the day I bought the car. I figured now was the best time to get the headliner how I wanted it to be. So my dad and I spent probably 6 hours reupholstering this thing and it came out really nice. I reupholstered the headliner in perforated black vinyl using 3M Super90 which is awesome stuff. It looks awesome in the car.

Other than that, I took the car on it's first real drive in 8 months out to Mk1Madness in Mohnton, PA which is a 5 hour round trip and the car did great, minus the temp gauge bouncing around all over the place, which has me concerned, but I checked everything and it exhibits no signs of a blown head gasket. I even pulled the water pump last night to ensure that the impeller was not loose on the shaft and it's not. So I really need to find a way to actually measure the temp of the engine before I can conclude whether the head gasket randomly took a dump half way into my drive there or whether the temp gauge has a bad voltage regulator or is bad itself.

Thanks man! It was well worth the effort. It looks even better in the car than out of it, mostly because there were some areas where the glue was maybe a tad heavy so there are random high spots here and there that can be seen under light. In the car it looks great though and it looks as if it came that way from the factory, any minor imperfections are hidden by the low light.

PRY4SNO wrote:Agreed! Interesting choice with vinyl, compared to the more common alcantara. Definitely more period-correct!

Yeah, my first thought was to use alcantara, but then I got to thinking about it and decided it would look out of place because the A, B, C and D pillar trim is all black vinyl too and they are all in great shape and I didn't really want to reupholster those. Not to mention I love vinyl headliners found in Mk1 Rabbits, which is where I got the idea from! But the vinyl was probably tougher to work with than alcantara. Fortunately a little help from the heat gun helped me stretch it out in some spots with weird contours.

I actually didn't use any foam backing because the original headliner didn't use any. It was just fabric that was glued to the rigid foam headliner board, so I figured I'd do it the same way to avoid any further complication of the process. But I believe maybe some 1/8" foam would have helped eliminate any small imperfections in the board or my application of adhesive which like I said, was maybe a tad heavy in some spots.

This was a long weekend.. No specific updates on the car other than I dropped it off to my friend who painted it to have the clear be wet sanded and polished. Should be nice.

The real update is I closed on my house this weekend. It's 5 and a half hours North of my current home. It's about 20 minutes North of Whiteface Mountain in NY and is completely secluded and outside of the tourist area making up Whiteface Mountain, Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. It's on 34 acres, the two car garage is approximately 20 feet wide and 24 feet deep, which will be perfect for the Quantum and my Mk1 Rabbit when I get up there full time. It's also got a 30x40 barn out back, it needs a roof, but that's not the worst thing to deal with, especially considering the rest of the structure is very sound.. There will be a lift or two going in that

Overall the house needs a fair amount of work (abandon for 2 years), but for the absurdly low price I got it for, I'll take all the space I now have and do the work to make a real good place to live for myself. Surrounded by mountains where I can ski, insane roads to drive on and peace and quiet.